Freedom and Nazareth traded touchdowns for two quarters before the Patriots decided to throw a little less and run a little more on Friday night at Andrew S. Leh Stadium in Nazareth.

“With the quarterback situation, [Brian Taylor] was down, and Ethan Neidig, our other quarterback, had an X-ray this week on his wrist, so at halftime, we didn’t know where we were going,” said Freedom head football coach Jason Roeder.

Taylor re-entered the game, and where the Pates went was to a 38-21 victory over Nazareth as senior running back Deante’ Crawford, who rushed for 201 yards on 44 carries, scored three touchdowns in the second half.

“It feels good to come back from a loss and then to win. We knew it was gonna be a dog fight, so we took it play-by-play,” Crawford said. “It was surprising because I never got that many carries before, but I had to do what it takes. Big talk at halftime. We had to change a couple plays and get ready to work in the second half.”

The Patriots scored on their first possession of the third quarter after Taylor connected with wide receiver Jalen Fletcher at the 15-yard line. Crawford carried on four plays before scoring to break the 14-14 tie.

An interception by Connor Stofanak led to a field goal by Zeyad Ragab that put the Pates ahead 24-14.

Nazareth committed another turnover when the ball was knocked out of quarterback Sammy Sasso’s hands and fell into the arms of Freedom junior Kyle Johnson.

Crawford’s subsequent 13-yard sprint to the end zone widened Freedom’s lead, 31-14.

“We had to get our offense going and we handled our business and went play-by-play,” said Taylor. “Our defense has been great. All credit to them, making stops, all these turnovers to give our offense a chance to score. [Deante’] was reeling off yards and he was going, so why not stick with it?”

With 7:49 remaining in the game, Sasso’s pass was again intercepted, this time by Neidig, and Crawford scored with just under two minutes left to play.

“Usually our turnover margin is, I think we were minus four coming into this, and Freedom doesn’t win games that way, so we knew we had to protect the football better and take it away a little more,” said Coach Roeder. “It’s the way the game kind of went there, trying to milk the clock at the end. Brian (Taylor) made some key plays, no doubt. We protected on the outside, and obviously some receivers made some plays on the outside.”

On a fourth-and-16, Taylor completed a pass to Neidig in the end zone for the Patriots’ first touchdown of the game.

“My line was blocking, my receivers were making all the catches, and that’s not me. That’s them. They set that up,” said a humble Taylor.

Nazareth was first on the scoreboard early in the first quarter after Sasso completed two passes, the first to Jake Hilarcyk and the second to Nolan Lobb for 17 yards, when Tyler Rohn plunged to the end zone.

The Blue Eagles were also last on the scoreboard on a Sasso throw to Broc Bender with two seconds left.

Freedom’s next opponent is Allentown Central Catholic on Friday, also Freedom’s Homecoming, at 7 p.m. at BASD Stadium.